Susan Podziba & Associates is motivated by its commitment to good governance and democratic rule of law as the best means for creating and maintaining a nation’s security, stability, and prosperity.

SP&A creates opportunities for deliberative interactions between government and the governed that build unique solutions to complex public policy challenges and, at the same time, strengthen the fabric of democratic governance.

Since her days of hitchhiking throughout the United States, Susan Podziba, our firm’s founder, has marveled at the wisdom intrinsic to people from all walks of life. As a public policy mediator for more than two decades, she has been privileged to assist participants of public deliberative processes in using their collective knowledge, and even their opposing passions, to construct innovative solutions that reflect existing possibilities and political constraints.

Her goal, and the goal of our firm, is to draw out and integrate individuals’ wisdom, tap into their passions, and link their conflicts to broader contexts in order to create solutions to seemingly impossible situations. Such solutions only emerge through sustained and productive negotiations that contain stakeholders’ inevitable clashes of will, perspective, and values.

Based in Brookline, Massachusetts, SP&A’s practice is rooted in, and advances, mediation and negotiation theories developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Our staff contribute to theory building and innovative practice through publications, case studies, simulations, and research roundtables. Our courses and trainings for mid-career professionals, faculty, and graduate students provide us opportunities to continually analyze and improve our practice.